A substantial failing with the known electronic timepieces having so-called digital readouts is that they are not as easy to read as a standard timepiece having an analog readout constituted by the hour, minute and second hands. A person accustomed to reading a standard analog timepiece is not able to easily read the several digits of a normal electronic watch.
For this reason it is known to provide, as described in German patent publication No. 2,451,057, a timepiece with an at least partially analog display constituted by an array of angularly equispaced rods, normally numbering sixty, of which twelve have individually energizable separate inner parts. It is therefore possible sequentially to energize the inner parts in accordance with the hour and the outer parts in accordance with the minute, thereby giving an analog display that closely resembles the standard timepiece. Attempts to add a second indicator to this arrangement have proven so complex as to be completely impractical. Another disadvantage in this system, and in the comparable system described in German patent publication No. 2,410,527, is that the hour indication at least is relatively crude so that ascertaining the exact time is relatively difficult.
Another system is described in German patent publication No. 2,260,057 which uses an analog display of the hours and a digital display of the minutes and seconds. Such a system therefore contains a relatively complex binary/decimal converter, and requires 132 connections to the display or indicator so that the desired information can all be displayed. Such an indicator is therefore relatively expensive and has a correspondingly short service life.